The present invention relates generally to heat sinks and in particular relates to heat sinks and retention modules for retaining heat sinks to substrates and heat producing components.
Processors and related computer components are becoming more powerful with increasing capabilities, resulting in increasing amounts of heat dissipated from these components. Simultaneously, package and die sizes of the components are decreasing or remaining the same, which increases the amount of heat energy given off by the component for a given unit of surface area. Furthermore, as computer related equipment becomes more powerful, more chips are surface mounted to the printed circuit board, more and more components are being placed inside the equipment or chassis which is also decreasing in size, resulting in additional heat generation in a smaller volume of space. Increased temperatures can potentially damage the components of the equipment, or reduce the lifetime of the individual components and the equipment.
Heat sinks have been used to assist in dissipating heat from the processor and other heat producing components within a housing. The overall size of the heat sink is limited by the volume constraints of the housing. Heat dissipation has been increased by using clips which physically hold a heat sink to the processor package. To maximize the amount of heat dissipated from the heat producing components, a spring force is used in coupling the heat sink with the heat producing component. However, when assembling the heat sink with the heat producing component, the assembly of the spring clip causes the printed board at and adjacent to the heat producing component to flex, resulting in stress to the solder balls between the chips and the printed circuit boards. In addition, tough handling processes, such as shipping and/or testing place additional stresses on the circuit board and/or the components, increasing the risk of failure to the structurally weak solder balls.
Accordingly, there is a need for a way to cool components without increasing the risk of damage to a substrate. What is further needed is a way to cool components without increasing risk of damage to surface mounted components. There is also a need for minimizing damage to the connections between the chips and the printed circuit boards.